House, Senate Ready For Tort Reform Talks

May 28, 1986|By Diane Hirth, Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE -- House Speaker James Harold Thompson called Senate President- elect Ken Jenne late Tuesday afternoon to initiate negotiations on House and Senate bills that combine stringent business liability insurance rate regulation and rollbacks with limitations on victims` rights.

But Thompson, D-Quincy, and Jenne, D-Hollywood, denied that any substantive agreement had been reached on how to blend the two controversial bills -- both aimed at curbing soaring insurance rates.

The Senate, for instance, has a tougher rate rollback provision and has been targeted for more of the insurers` wrath. The House, meanwhile, would let some insurers` investment income be excluded from calculations of their profits, which has drawn the ire of consumer groups.

Thompson said the House today will take up the Senate bill, amend it to read like the House bill and send it back to the Senate -- the formal gestures necessary before a conference committee can be appointed.

``The quicker we get to it, the better,`` Thompson said. ``We`re not very far apart.`` Next week is scheduled to be the last of the session.

Jenne, meanwhile, continued to characterize the atmosphere between the two houses on these bills as ``congenial.``

``I got from the House members that we`re not that far apart, which is legislativese for we want to negotiate,`` Jenne said, though he also acknowleged rumors are flying that lobbyists are out to kill the bill.

In other developments:

-- State Insurance Commissioner Bill Gunter said he wouldn`t ``rule out`` putting the state into the insurance business to counterbalance threats from insurers that they would stop -- or slow down -- the writing of commercial liability insurance in the state.

-- An informal coalition of consumers, social service agencies, environmentalists, senior citizens and organized labor were angry when House leaders declined to meet with them, although Senate President Harry Johnston, D-West Palm Beach, and Jenne did. The coalition was lobbying for the Senate bill.

-- The voice of big business in the Capitol, Jon Shebel of Associated Industries, insisted that any commercial liability rate rollback above 15 percent ``will kill us on the availability of insurance.``

The House bill calls for an immediate 40 percent rollback. The Senate`s rollback would be 25 percent immediately, followed by a return to Jan. 1, 1984 rates as of Jan. 1, 1987.